Well, once again I barely got into any other activities other than GW2 over the weekend. I went a bit more in-depth with a couple of the classes that I'd neglected in the 1st BWE, all fun enough, but the Mesmer has become a must-roll for me.

I normally dislike playing caster classes, but this is a fun class that seems like it will take some time to master. The whole mechanic of using multiple clones to produce damage or induce conditions on the enemy is really interesting to me.

I found that a sword/torch weapon set is very much to my liking. One of my favorite moves was to use a skill that produced a clone that would quickly close with your target and leave you the option to swap places with it, pop a skill called "The Prestige" that would stealth you for 3 seconds, then reappear with an AOE/DOT fire blast (great skill name )...yep, swap with the first clone before you reappear, exploding back onto your target before letting loose an additional skill that was a flurry of sword swings that leave you invulnerable during it's channel. Shatter a clone to daze the target and you can get out while summoning another...the joy on casting on the move.

There are some other unusual skills in their bag of tricks. Like placing a dome over an enemy where and ranged attacks are deflected back at them, creating a wall that will stealth your allies if they pass through it, or creating a portal on you that will teleport your allies to another portal location placed by you.

I found the Mesmer to be great in pvp. With the clones/phantasms, being able to swap positions with certain ones, teleports, stealths, etc., you can really keep the opponent off-balance if they aren't paying attention to where the real you is at. It's not all that powerful in terms of health or damage, but can sure make a mess of things and allow your teammates to work.

So it seems like I'll definitely be playing a warrior, a thief, and a mesmer....but which one is to be the first at release.

Overall a good experience over this weekend. Throughout all the time I spent playing, I only ran across one bug where an caravan event was stalled just outside a town. Performance was improved a good deal, sure it needs more optimization and a bit more balance, but it's on the right track. I'm really hoping release isn't too too far ahead as I think I'll be mostly sitting out any future BWEs, I'll log in long enough to check performance things or any major changes, but not spending the whole damn weekend playing. :p

One thing that has surprised me is how polarizing the gameplay is amongst my friends who are typically MMO junkies. Out of the 4 that I regularly play with, I'm the only one who really digs it...they don't have any particular reason for their ho-hum attitude towards it, but it's just not gripping them. Looks like I'll be guild hunting...

I'd have to be with your mates Booner. I can put my finger on a few things, but ordinarily they wouldn't be enough to mention. But the one big thing I look for in a MMO, at least for the first few months is immersion, and atmosphere. I think GW2 suffers in both these areas.Its too sand-boxy for my liking. Just loads of players running all over the map looking for the, "you have entered an event about to start" or following empty hearts on your map.I can see how it would be the cats pajamas for some.But like I said previously, you never know what a little more time in the oven will produce. It might just be that I need to play for a while and "learn" to like GW2's way of doing things.

But the one big thing I look for in a MMO, at least for the first few months is immersion, and atmosphere. I think GW2 suffers in both these areas.Its too sand-boxy for my liking.

The combat mechanics are what really grab me, but I absolutely understand the concerns on atmosphere as I felt the same way during the first BWE. That said, I found there is a good bit of atmosphere with politics, NPC interactions, factions and whatnots that go into giving a world life....but it is very much a sandbox and you have to 'find it' because it's in no way obvious. It's somewhat similar to ES games where you have to talk with or follow NPCs on the chance something interesting may happen.

I'm not trying to say "you don't get it" (because I hate that phrase with a passion), just saying there is more world depth than appears on the surface.

The scouts will give you some info on the area geography and it's background, but there is more to been seen than their 20 second rundown.

A good example of this was in the Kessex Hills over the weekend, an area where the humans are battling the centaurs, where I was approaching a human settlement and saw an unusual looking non-targetable centaur walking into the city. I just followed them in and watched as it introduced itself to the towns sheriff as an emissary and proceeded to discuss the situation...during this, a local citizen interrupted and started blasting the sheriff for dealing with them and threatening the emissary. Nothing came of this in the way of XP or anything, but it did give me some insight on what's happening in the world and what my purpose in it was past the personal story.

I would like to know if the world drama ramps up and becomes a bit more obvious as you get into the upper levels, without it I'm not sure it will have the lasting appeal for a vast number of players.

As an offshoot of the way it's all set up, I may look to choose a lower population world at release to avoid the zerg mentality I saw on the high-pop worlds. I did a bunch of server bouncing the first two days to find balanced WvWvW matchups and found the lower pop worlds to be much more enjoyable in PvE. I likely be spending a good bit of time doing both WvW and PvE so I hope the matchup system gets straightened out so that I'll be able to enjoy PVE in smaller groups (where the game shines imo) and WvW where one world isn't steamrolling the others.

I think the world is quiet immersive in terms of attention to detail of the cities and environment. There are things like the planetarium, giant aquarium and other stuff that adds a lot of flavour. You don't have to follow the zerg chasing one event after another. I found an out of the way place where there were kids playing. Followed them around to see a mini story unfold which was quiet entertaining. Hopefully there are more stuff like that to reward people who like to explore.

The only thing that bothers me is that the characters still feel a bit floaty. So it feels like I am driving my character. I really wish there was a playable first person view but I've been asking for that ever since EQ1. I don't think I've ever felt as immersed in a MMO world as EQ1 and it probably has a lot to do with the view.

Floaty was a problem in Guild Wars and it hasn't gone away in GW2. I always attributed it to the game engine itself, but what do I know? I can relate to having friends that aren't digging the game as well. In fact, they dont like it at all. Personally, if I only played the early content I may agree. But I think the game gets substantially better as the enemies get tougher and smarter, which doesn't happen for a while. PvP being another strength of the game for the same reason imo - fewer skills than most mmo's with much more intricate combat based on how those skills tie together. I noticed this particularly with Thief - where weapon choice can really change things up. I'm convinced my friends just aren't giving the game enough time. Immersion I can't really speak to, but if its not popping your toaster, then it's just not. I get that.

Logged

LD

"Let your enemies fear, for a harlequin of the Laughing God dances at your side."

It is interesting for me, that during the first BWE, I had an enjoyable experience, but I just wasn't sold 100%. This past weekend, I played a human Guardian, and the human areas were just so much more interesting than the Norn. I am still having issues with getting BSODs when playing Guild Wars 2, but hoping it is just due to the current state of the beta.

Overall, I am much more pleased with the game, and glad that I prepurchased after this past BWE.

I would check your memory if you're getting BSOD. I played the last two betas on 4 PC's of varying ages and power levels and they were all rock solid except for a launcher issue on one system during BWE2 which was a known issue.

I would check your memory if you're getting BSOD. I played the last two betas on 4 PC's of varying ages and power levels and they were all rock solid except for a launcher issue on one system during BWE2 which was a known issue.

Yeah I ran memtest through 5 passes with no issues. I can play hours of Skyrim, Diablo 3, Civ 5, etc with no issues. One of the posters over on OO posted very similiar issues, who has the same exact video card.

The characters feel "floaty" because they are In numerous locations I noticed my character's feet were 1-2 inches above the ground. It's really pronounced on hills and steps. Hopefully something they fix before launch. Still can't wait.

I would check your memory if you're getting BSOD. I played the last two betas on 4 PC's of varying ages and power levels and they were all rock solid except for a launcher issue on one system during BWE2 which was a known issue.

Yeah I ran memtest through 5 passes with no issues. I can play hours of Skyrim, Diablo 3, Civ 5, etc with no issues. One of the posters over on OO posted very similiar issues, who has the same exact video card.

I've been in both beta weekend events and I finally got a BSOD this past weekend. It only happened once, but it sounded like my laptop was about to explode. I have Radeon Mobility cards in Crossfire.

So far I'm liking the game, although I'm curious to see how they further develop the cutscenes. I've been a bit spoiled in that department with SWTOR.

I'm also curious about class balance. At the moment, certain class/weapon combinations seem very OP compared to others. I gave significant time to an Engineer this weekend, and felt fairly underpowered compared to both a Ranger and Greatsword wielding Warrior I played the last time.

Anyway, I tried to stay online through the mass beta ending world event, but eventually got booted and couldn't get back in.

Server was just brought down at 6pm eastern on the dot. Got to play for the entirety. I did a little bit of WvW with a couple of Wanderers. Then, put in a couple of levels on my Charr Guardian. Lastly, there was an event where a large invasion of 'Branded' took over the Plains Of Ashford. If you were killed by the invaders, you came back to life and played as a 'transformed invader'. It was a lot of fun. The event was still going when the server went down. We couldn't kill Rytlock (It was kinda pointless, actually. He's a level 80 Hero and no one was doing any damage, but it was fun killing humans and transforming them). This game needs to come out already!!!

This is an incredibly momentous day for the studio and for me personally. This journey began in 2007 when we first announced that we were beginning work on Guild Wars 2 and that you wouldn’t be hearing from us for a while. Then in 2010 we unveiled our manifesto for Guild Wars 2: a living breathing online world that challenges convention, that’s designed for fun instead of grind, and that brings social interaction to a new level in an online world.Through all the long hours and hard decisions, we were bolstered by the knowledge that we were not in this alone. All along you’ve been there for us, cheering us on, supporting us when we needed it, testing early versions of the game, and above all, giving us your honest feedback every step of the way. Guild Wars 2 is a better game for all of the work that our community has put in.

Now that we’re just two months away from launch, we’ll spend our remaining time optimizing, polishing, and balancing the game, to ensure that we provide you with the best launch-day experience we possibly can.To this end, I’m excited to announce that our next and final Beta Weekend Event is planned for July 20-22.